Shwari!

  As you may have noticed, it's been easiest for me to send these out once a week and review the things that I've done over the past week.  But lately, I feel like there are a lot of little things that I see or experience that never quite make it into my e-mail but I really want to share.  So here, are some really random things that I have had the pleasure of experiencing here.

  Starting with the electric slide.  Most all Americans are familiar with it, especially if the song comes on at a wedding or other event where people from all ages are dancing together.   But here, people dance the electric slide to everything, at any club.  It's really quite a strange site to go up to a dance floor with some techno remix of a popular song from 10 years ago and see people dancing the electric slide.  AND THEN, that song leads into a new one, and they're still dancing the electric slide.  It's almost like a constant flash mob and no one seems to notice, it just happens.

  Next up is clothes, people here care about their appearance, and professionals at least, will always have on clean, pressed clothes.  But many people seem to have very little sense of matching their clothes.  Mixing random patterns (maybe animal print and stripes) with random colors is pretty common, plus any shoes will do.  Of course there are matching outfits that people make, but usually it's the same fabric so you've got a safe bet there.  I've had someone compliment me on my outfit when i had a specific color scheme going on, which back home no one would look twice at.

  Continuing with the theme of appearance, the culture here is generally very conservative.  If, as a female, you wear shorts or a shirt above you knee or a top with spaghetti straps, you can expect some unwanted stares and comments from people around you.  But if you have baby who needs to breastfeed and you're sitting on the side of a main street or on a bus or anywhere really, you just start nursing right there with nothing to cover yourself.  I've seen it several times and while I suppose it makes sense (too hot to cover up, it's rude to look and so it's just accepted here) I still can't quite get comfortable with it.  In addition to that, if you go out to a club at night, all of the rules about clothes go out the window.  Girls dress just as skimpy in a club as the would in the US, I guess the difference is that you expect to be in a car for the entire travel time and the people in the club are usually mzungu or well-off Tanzanians who don't get offended by it.    A couple of other interesting things I've seen has been a woman with a plastic bag on her head underneath a cloth wrap...water proofing maybe?  I saw a young boy with a shirt that said "it's a girl thing" another that said "I <3 virginia", "Cheerleading fan team" and even a UMD jersey (I may have taken a picture of that guy). 

  Another interesting difference is the way kids are treated.  Not in a bad way per se, but their safety is apparently not in as much jeopardy as it is in the US.  People let their young children walk across town to school on their own every day (I'm talking like 5 year olds here).  They are free to play in the street or at a neighbors house and no one is really worried what they are up to.  Rahim, in fact wanders around the house and yard as he likes and plays with anything he happens to find (he's been known to eat matches).  There's no such thing as child proofing, or car seats.  You get on a bus with a kid and don't have a seat? Pass the kid to a stranger to sit on their lap for the ride.  Only seat open in the bus is the front?  Your small child sits on your lap in the front seat.  Only person in the car is you, the driver, and you're taking your child somewhere? Here's hoping he sits relatively still.  In some ways its nice that people don't worry so much about every little detail, but I can't help but freak out a little when I see some of these situations.  All of it, of course is relative to the abilities and needs of the people so I'm not criticizing, just noticing.

  As well as having children wander everywhere, I've seen chickens, goats and cows all over the place.  Usually the goats and cows will be herded around by someone but they still have free roam, which is kind of cool.  Although the drivers here are crazy and I was surprised by the fact that I haven't seen any road kill.  Though I heard a story from a friend here that she saw a Massai guy cutting up a dead cow on the side of the road once so I suspect that any animals killed by a car quickly become someones food so you rarely actually see them.

Working hard for the money...oh wait

  I guess I should start off by saying that after a few days I started feeling well again and I never had any serious problem.  I think I keep expecting something horrible to happen where I'm bed ridden for a day or two.  Technically it can still happen so I'm keeping my guard up.  It's been a busy week in Moshi, we haven't done any huge projects or moved mountains yet, but we've gotten a lot of good planning and preparations done.  As well as some networking to be able to start working with the students and community on their Roots and Shoot projects.

  Last Monday we familiarized ourselves with the area and met up with Tina to make plans for our upcoming time here.  Tina is our Tanzanian volunteer, she is between secondary school and college so for the next month and a half she will be our guide, translator and friend.  She was a roots and shoots member in secondary school so she is very excited to see all the other schools and projects and has been a great help so far.

  The house we are staying at, is a hostel for volunteers in Tanzania.  The price we pay includes breakfast and dinner made by the family so of course the food is always delicious.  I keep trying to go into the kitchen an hour or so before dinner to help cook but they haven't made use of me yet.  I really want to learn how to make some of their treats.  Anyway, while staying here, we've met several volunteers and while no one is doing the same thing as us, we are making an effort to see what other programs are going on around us for the potential to join forces or at least make connections.  So last week a group from the organization "Mama Hope" was here and they spent the week at St. Timothy's pre/primary school which they raised the funds to build.  So on Tuesday, we went to the school with them to meet the students and help with their activity for the day, which was an olympic game day.  The kids were all really excited and had a lot of fun though many of them lost interest eventually because there are almost 200 students and we could only keep so many engaged at once.  They had a lot of fun though and medals were given to the winners and cookies and candy was passed out to everyone.  Plus we were able to get a contact of someone at the school who was interested in R & S.  The school has their own bus and a fair amount of land some of which is already used for gardening so maybe in the future we can bring the kids to Mweka or partner them with a secondary school.  We gave him a pamphlet on starting a roots and shoots club so hopefully we can stay in touch if he really wants to get going.

  Wednesday we went to Mweka which wasn't quite as productive as we had hoped because Sikievu never met us there.  Sikievu is the local Moshi Roots and Shoots coordinator though he is semi-retired so he only works around the Mweka area where he lives.  Joseph is the manager at the environmental education site so we were still able to meet up with him and help a little with the gardening and talk to him about some ideas/plans and look a little closer at the library.  Plus we were able to find our way there such that we can get back (we got a little lost initially).  Some of our hopeful plans for Mweka include student trips, fuel efficient stove building, designing a more successful fish pond, and maybe preparing informational pamphlets on the trees there (type and care, etc) for students or anyone else who takes a sapling back with them.  If we manage to get even one of those things done in our time here I think we'll be a success.  We later found out that Sikievu wanted us at a meeting at the Mweka university but we had no idea and were only able to get in touch through Joseph who wasn't a great middle man.  We did finally meet up with Sikievu yesterday and have made plans today to do a school visit with him.  The school we are going to is Kibosho Girls Secondary School and they have an active Roots and Shoots club so this will be a good chance for us to share our information and find out what they have going on.

  Thursday we headed to Arusha which was unfortunately about 3 hours to get there again so by the time we got there Japhet, the Arusha Coordinator was at a school (apparently it was the American students last day and they spent at Mringa Secondary School in Arusha).  So we joined there and got to catch up with them a little and see what that school was up to.  They are a very successful club and had some nice presentations planned.  We got to see them do a traditional dance and then present a skit on the environment.  The skit was a little silly, but it was great to see the students really passionate about the topic.  After the club meeting we sat down with Japhet at the office and went over plans and suggestions for our time here.  Our initial plan was to go to Arusha every week but with the incredibly long commute we decided that every other week, unless something important is going on will be our plan.

  Friday ended up being a lazy day on the computer.  We made some plans and did some research for the things that we want to do here.  We quit working in the early afternoon to go to the gym for a bit, yup, I joined a gym here!  I was surprised at how easy it was to find one (just down the street from our house) which I didn't really expect but I'm glad we found it.  The place is smallish, but they have all the basic cardio and weight equipment and some mats and free weights to do your own stuff on.  They also have an aerobics class which they hold every day at 5pm.  On friday I went just for a quick run and to do a short circuit of my own little exercises.  At the end I was pretty worn out and ready to go but unfortunately got pressured into staying for the aerobics class "just for a little bit".  I ended up staying for the whole thing and it turned out to be a lot of fun.  I haven't worked out since before I even came here so I was really sore Saturday and Sunday.  But yesterday I managed to go for another run.  I'm not sure if it's from the lack of exercise or a difference in altitude but I need to work myself back up in my running, it'll be good preparation for climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro!

  We've spent some time wandering around the town and exploring the area.  I've discovered that similar to in Dar, I want to buy everything I see!  I'm not usually such a shopper but I love that everything here is handmade and many things are significantly cheaper than back home.  I've already bought a few souvenirs for people and a few for myself.  The stuff I've gotten for myself I've already started using though, like sandals and a bag and some earrings.  I want to get some clothes made while I'm here because apparently its pretty inexpensive and you can request to have things made in whatever style you want (and it might even turn out the way you asked!).  One of the other volunteers here works for Tafcom which is a local organization that does a lot but one of the things in specific is a tailoring shop for single mothers here.  They'll make all kinds of things, not just clothes so don't be surprised if I end up bringing some gifts back from them.  I hope everyone back home is doing well, I still miss you all and as usual, I'll send pictures separately in a few minutes!

Preparing for the olympics

The long jump

The Javelin

Leading my team (it was assigned :P)

The library at Mweka

Tree nursery at Mweka

Chagga hut at Mweka

Rahim again

Time to start doing some work...tomorrow

  Hakuna Matata.  Yes, that is Swahili but it's not very cool to say it here (it apparently became very unpopular after The Lion King).  It's still used but mostly in Kenya, "hamna shida" is what you might hear here.  Exciting news!  I am officially a Resident of Tanzania!  I can legally live and work here for the next year.  So last week I left off with my plan to go to Moshi on Wed.  Everything went as planned and our 10 hour bus ride was rather uneventful.  It was very cool to see the landscape of the country and though the bus was a tiny bit cramped, the trip went by pretty quickly for me.  We made it to our new home which is like a hostel/share house but for volunteers only.  So its incredibly cheap but you have to work with them or for another organization.  As it stands, I think Jay and I are going to be the only guests for most of our time here but the family lives here too and they cook (amazing) food for us so we won't be lonely.  On a less exciting note we have not yet actually seen kili :(.  The climate in the mountain area is usually overcast and cloudy so I haven't gotten to see the mountain in all it's glory.  I have spent some time in the foothills seen Mt. Meru which was cool but I'm excited for when Kili finally comes into view.

  Last week we had some high school students from the US partnering with Tanzanian Roots and Shoots students to learn about the community and environment here by doing some service projects.  They had activities Tuesday through Friday but because of the work we were doing with Jane in Dar we were only able to join for the last two days.  On Thursday, we spent the better part of the day at "Machare" which is a coffee farm in the foothills of KIli run by a German woman.  She has about half of her land used for coffee and the rest she preserves for conservation.  She has for the last few years, dedicated what would seem like all of her spare time and money trying to help the local villagers, and in a way that has made them more self-sufficient rather than more dependent.  She has helped them collect money to buy water piping to get a steady stream of cleaner water.  She donated some small hydroelectric pumps, taught them how to make fuel efficient stoves, donated an incinerator and helps them to collect their trash so that they can keep their land clear, and has helped them to find a co-op to sell their coffee to, which provides them with a much greater (but still small) percentage of the overall profit.  She has done some really great work and is fully dedicated to helping these people, I only hope that it makes a lasting impression such that when she is no longer able to help them, they can continue their work.  Like watching Dr. Goodall, it was very inspiring to hear her tell us what she has accomplished and aspires to as well as visit the village and help out a tiny bit.  

  After the farm, we visited a local Chagga village where we were able to hear about the history of the tribe and see the house that was used by each tribe chief since maybe the late 1880's.  It was interesting to see and do but he was apparently furious that we were late and was basically yelling at us and demanding that we give them money.  Of course the girl translating didn't add that part in but about half the people there spoke Swahili so it became apparent to everyone in time.  

  On Friday, we went to the environmental education site in Mweka which is in a Chagga village in the foothills of Kili.  This site is funded by Roots and Shoots and Jay and I expect to spend at least one day a week there.  For the students, they had a variety of activities planned starting with a traditional breakfast which was Ndizi (banana) soup with meat (or bean porridge for the veg freaks), yams and delicious tea.  Then they rotated through cooking lunch, building a picnic table, weaving a bed, and planting grass to prevent soil erosion and provide food for the cattle.  The kids had a couple of school lessons after that and then lunch, which was more traditional Chagga food: stewed bananas, rice, and potatoes.  At the end, the American students, the Tanzanian students, and the Chagga Mama's (who did all the cooking) each did a dance for everyone.  It was a lot of fun to watch and of course, the American students looked the silliest doing Mambo number five but everyone had a great time.

  This was the end of the two groups time together so at the end of the day there were many hysterical high school girls saying goodbye to all of their new friends, much to the amusement of the rest of us.  We said less tearful good byes and headed home with some new contacts of people to see and work with in the area.  Saturday we were up early to go to Arusha so that Erica could leave Jay and I with the knowledge of how to get there on our own in the future.  The bus was comfortable enough but it took us about 3 hours to get from our house, to our destination.  Coming back on Sunday also took about 3 hours total so we're going to have to find a better bus to take or there would be little point in going to Arusha for a day every week.  While we were there we got to see the Roots and Shoots office and Erica's old house (she used to work in Arusha) and I spent the afternoon at an orphanage with her roommate Becky.  The two of us brought some donated books to the kids and they were pretty excited about the new books and to have people to talk to and hand out with so it was a fun experience.  Everyone else went out but I stayed in to rest and though I was disappointed to miss the Christmas in July party it was probably for the best because yesterday I started feeling a bit off.  Nothing serious, just a little abdominal, back and head pain.  Hopefully a good night's sleep will help and I'll be ready for another fun day tomorrow!

Rahim, the son of our Resident family

Kahawa! (Coffee)

Now that's an avacado tree!

Fuel efficient stove building

Chagga style hut

Ndizi! (Plantains)

Watching us from a distance

Adorable baby goat

Drying the coffee beans

Chagga chief's House, possibly from the late 1880's

Has it really only been a week?

  Well I had a fairly busy week last week and as cheap as things can be here it is really easy to burn through your money.  Not too much has changed although on Thursday I did have a relatively interesting afternoon.  The day started with swahili class which was normal, then Jay and I had planned with Yusuph (a Roots and Shoots intern) to get lunch and for him to take us around town a little.  Our original plan was to go to Kariakoo, which is a huge market/shop area where you can buy just about anything and for cheap prices (Tanzanian prices not mzungu prices).  But because we had been there briefly before (only in the food market section) we decided to go to Mwenge first which is a community that produces and sells wood carvings (mostly to tourists).  Wood carvings, like Tinga Tinga, are found all over but this is where most of it comes from and you get the best product and prices there.  So from there we grabbed lunch then had to stop by a school for a roots and shoots meeting which we were SUPER late for but was apparently no big deal because this is Tanzania.  We stayed there to talk for like 10 minutes then take pictures.  We could have (maybe should have) gotten a ride home with the JGI driver.  But we thought that since we were relatively close to the national stadium and Kariakoo and since we had a Tanzanian friend to guide us, it would be such a good idea to continue our adventure.  The stadium was cool, very big and a little rundown but you can tell they love their football (soccer) here.  

  From there we had what was thought to be a "short" walk to the daladala station which was at least a mile, but eventually we got there and hopped on a bus into town.  Unfortunately the police or whomever is in charge of it, decided that since traffic is so much greater going out of town, they blocked us from going in for at least 30 min.  By this time the afternoon was gone and evening was quickly approaching.  I was getting a little worried about being so far from home at that time of day but if we had to grab a cab and pay extra to get home, so be it.  We managed to get moving and make it to K/koo which is the last stop.  But when the bus should have stopped, it turned around to switch passengers and go back out of town.  We were eager to get out and get moving but the people (many many people) surrounding the bus were far more eager to get on the bus.  People started chasing the bus for about 1/4 mile of its final destination and when we stopped, a mob of people started shouting and pushing and hitting the bus and quite a few people starting jumping into the bus through the windows.  Apparently this is standard behavior for the people on this route but it was unlike any experience I've had and I was on the verge of a minor freak out.  We were squished in the bus for about 5 minutes just not moving, eventually the people leaving the bus were pushing harder than the ones pushing on (or maybe someone explained to the crowd that there will be more space if you let the people who want to get off the bus the chance to do so...but probably not). Thankfully we had Yusuph and Azizi (a R&S volunteer who joined up with us to go to K/koo after the school visit) to guide us and assure me that we would be fine.  We were fine and I was laughing about it before long but I tell you, I felt like I was directly in the middle of a pending riot, I was scared.  After shoving our way off of the bus we walked quickly through the market,  but it was too late to explore the shops.  We caught a Bajaji out of K/koo and headed towards home with Yusuph.  We were supposed to meet our classmates and teacher for dinner near the house so we headed straight there and parted ways with Yusuph.  The rest of the night went smoothly and the rest of the weekend as well but to avoid another hour of typing I'll skip ahead a bit.

  I started this e-mail yesterday and I'm finishing it today which is all for the best because I had a great day today!  In the morning, I went to Twiga Cement with Jay and Dr. Goodall where we were participating in a tree planting event.  The Twiga Cement company has decided in the last few years to start a tree nursery on a section of land that had become barren from their quarrying.  They are done with the land but they still own it so they decided to start this project and have collaborated with local roots and shoots clubs to help plant the trees there and spread them out in the community.  So there were several introductions and Dr. Goodall gave a speech which she came up with on the spot.  You can tell she's done this sort of thing hundreds (thousands?) of times before and she did an excellent job.  After that she planted a tree while everyone stood around and watched, then the students (and the rest of us) had a chance to plant trees of our own.  There were probably about 20 trees planted today and as small of a thing it might seem the change in the landscape is incredible, and they're planting all indigenous trees so of course they have been very successful.

   After Twiga, Jane had a meeting and the rest of us prepared for an event in the evening.  We showed "Jane's Journey" on a projector at a local theater and followed it up with her giving another short speech and a q&a/autograph session.  If you've never seen the movie I absolutely recommend it.  It has been great to come here and meet her and have this experience.  But going to an event where people are actively doing something and trying to do more, watching that movie and hearing her speak was so incredibly inspiring I can't even describe it.  The concept of Roots and Shoots is something I believe in so strongly and to see it action and portrayed so well, and to know I'm a part of it gave me one of the most amazing feelings I've ever felt.  It's so easy to talk about doing something like this and to tell people, but to really feel like I'm part of something that will have the power to make a difference in the world is something I've dreamed of for years.  I'm thrilled to be here but I'm just as excited to take this back with me.  I don't know that I could ever be like Jane and travel 300 days a year inspiring people all over the world, but I'm excited do my small part and hopefully inspire my small network.

  Well I think that will sum things up for now.  As usual there are many more things I have that I could say but this will have to do for the time being.  I'll be going to Moshi on Wednesday to get settled in so that will produce a new set of adventures to read about!

Day or 2 old baby goats

Nikki's birthday party

Wood caver at Mweng

National Stadium

Roots & Shoots club at Chan'gombe Sec.

The tree nursery at Twiga Cement

Some students planting a tree at Twiga

Me planting a tree at Twiga

Dr. Goodall planting a tree at Twiga

Sitting in the Dark...

Hello again,

  I am using my laptop in the dark for as long as it lasts to keep me occupied; we've lost power.  Initially we assumed it was because the electric company will cut power whenever they are low, but we just learned it's actually because we ran out of electric credit...fail.  Oh well, the benefit is, I'm making the time to send out a mass e-mail because it's too much of a pain to study or play games in this light.

  We got to celebrate Jane's grandson (Nikki's) 12th birthday with the family a little.  It was a standard family get together, nothing too exciting and I had actually met all of her family before I met her.  Maybe I should explain the house situation a little better.  Her late husband was a member of Tanzania's parliament and the director of the country's national parks, during the time that Julius Nyerere was president (he was the first when the country became Tanzania and is extremely well loved).  Anyway, her husband was given a plot of Nyerere's land and that's where we all live.  It's a compound with 3 houses, one is her's, one is her son's and the third is where her son's first wife lives.  Her son also runs his boat making business out of the compound.   Erica, Jay and I are the only ones in Jane's house unless she or some other guest is passing though.  So we've gotten to know the whole family already, in particular, Nikki because he's actually interested in hanging out with some silly wazungu.  In fact, Erica has taught Nikki and his cousin Francis "American Uno" which is a game she made up where they grab an uno card out of the deck and have to perform some crazy random activity.  I heard about the game from Erica before I met them, so as an American, I was able to confirm that it is indeed a real game that we play.  It's actually really fun and it's great to watch these kids get excited about all of the different challenges we give them.  "Dead goat" or "graveyard" is the best, especially because they clam to practice at home.

  I mentioned earlier about the foreign concept to Tanzanians of American lifestyle and I don't want anyone to think that I go around shouting out the differences and might therefore get in trouble.  In fact I want very much to live as much like the locals as I can; to avoid being singled out but also to be able to appreciate the culture from the best perspective.  There are in fact many other things that set me apart though they are standard for us.  Not being married is a good example.  Here, if you are a woman not married by about 25, there is something wrong with you.  There is no choice involved, you're not normal.  And having a small family is looked down upon as well.  When we went over the terms for family members in class, we each took a turn describing our families.  My teacher was very sad for us to have such small families.  The most significant difference for me to deal with is timing.  People here are late for everything and it is accepted as normal.  From what I understand, it stems from a culture where the time revolves around the people and not the other way around.  Harvest time is when people are harvesting, not a specific time or day or season.  In fact the first hour of their clock starts at 7am because the day doesn't start until you are awake and doing something.  So this means that people also tend to do one thing at a time until completion and then move on to whatever is next even if it means they are going to show up 2 hours late for a club meeting.  That will probably be our biggest struggle in adapting to life here.

  My time since I last e-mailed has been spent in much the same way as before.  I'm still in swahili class and we're all getting fairly good at it.  There's a ton that we'll never learn but with practice and the books that I have I should be able to continue teaching myself a little bit.  We finished our Tinga Tinga class this week, I was able to do 2 paintings and though it was awesome to do and learn about it had made my day just that much busier so I'm glad we're done.  I haven't seen any new tourist spots lately but on Thursday we should be going to Kariakoo which is a huge market surrounded by shops, and also to Mwenge which is where a lot of famous wood carving is done.  I have discovered that Erica loves to play cards so we've played a few rounds of cribbage and I've done a fair amount of reading.  A few weeks ago Erica found a chimpanzee skull in one of the bedrooms which the researchers were really excited to find out about because it might have been "Satan" one of the early chimps that Jane studied.  I think the most amazing thing is how much everything has become normal to me.  Walking by shacks on my way home, piles of trash burning on the streets, bajaji's driving in the dirt to get around traffic, $2 meals, cold baths, haggling to get a $0.50 mango, being chased by little children and more.  It's only been about 2.5 weeks but I'm already very used to it.  I do miss the people from home terribly though.  Everyone here is great and friendly but it'll be a while before I truly feel at ease with the people around me.

On a random note inspired by Molly, I have magically not had to go though any traumatic stomach sicknesses.  Though I have successfully peed in a hole in the ground!  That may seem odd to talk about but if you've never tried it, you don't know how difficult it is to do with aim.  My first try was at a school and I panicked and held it for the rest of the day, haha.  Thankfully in the city, everything is fairly modern I haven't had many chances to try.  I am certain things will be different in Moshi, so wish me luck!  Although I'm excited to hear that I'll at least have hot water there.  I'm confident that there's not much that is less motivating to get out of bed than the prospect of having to pour cold water over my head.  I'm sure there's much that I wanted to mention but forgot so this will have to do.
P.S. sorry I don't have any new pictures, I've only taken a couple more and I can't load them to my laptop when there's no power anyway so I'll have a whole bunch for the next one.

Salama Toka Tanzania

Greetings from Tanzania

   This is gonna be a long one so pole sana (many apologies) for that!  I had to reread my last e-mail to remember what I've sent so far. It's only been a week and I'm not swamped with work but I feel like it's been a month.  I'm still in the city, my schedule through next week is to be in swahili class Jumatatu mpaka Ijumaa (Monday until Friday) and orientation in the afternoon.  My teacher in swahili class probably thinks horrible things about America (sorry guys), the fact that I'm not married, not religious, a vegetarian and I talk to my cat have all gotten very sincere "pole sana" responses out of her.  One or the Roots and Shoots volunteer asked Jay (my counterpart for Moshi) what religion he was and when Jay said he wasn't religious the guy was like "oh you're pagan".  Needless to say religion is a huge priority here and a lack of it is a very foreign concept.  In fact the city has a large Muslim population and I often wake up at 4am to the call to prayer from the nearby mosques playing at top volume.

   We skipped class last Thursday to visit a few schools which was really good exposure to the work that we will be doing.  We visited two schools where the students were out for a holiday so we just talked to the teachers and signed in at the guest book.  The third school we visited we met with an active Roots and Shoots club so we took the time to tell them about ourselves and what we are about in terms of volunteering beyond club activities.  They told us about the activities that they have recently done and though most of it was in Swahili I could understand a small fraction of it.  After we all talked as a group, the R&S employees and volunteers separated so that the kids would have a chance to talk to us one on one and learn more about where we come from or what we do and how we got involved.  It was a little overwhelming at first because the kids came up to me and wanted me to talk about my culture but I had no idea what I should be saying.  Eventually I got them to ask a few more specific questions and then I could run with the train of thought that started.  They were really excited to hear about summer break, for the most part they are in school all year.  They were also surprised by the variety of subjects I studied in school.  Here when (or if) they start secondary school they choose a specialization like science or history or whatever and they focus on just the subjects related to that.  All of the secondary schools here are taught in English so thankfully I didn't have to stumble through swahili.  All of the girls we talked to are very smart, and though they are generally more shy than boys, some of these girls had a little attitude, it was pretty fun. The school we went to was over an hour away and the roads are about 50/50 for being paved or not.  Even the paved roads are pretty bumpy, so when we drove out there with 8 people in our SUV (it's a JGI vehicle) it was pretty awkward.  When we rode back with 2 of the teachers (apparently we'll do this regularly because we can and you share whatever you can with your friends here) it was pretty painful.  It's the same on public transportation, the daladala's will be completely full so that the bus door is stuck open and still shove more people in.

Last week I helped Erica take Bugs to the vet which was kind of interesting to see.  She wanted me there to tell him what was needed so I did and all he did was clean off Bug's nose (he's got some irritation there from constant scratching), give him his rabies shot and give him an injection of some ivermectin relative.  We got sulfa cream for his nose and a dewormer so he's all clear now.  It was interesting to me how the vet did absolutely nothing in terms of an exam.  We did come in during his off hours so that may have been part of it but I was still a little disappointed.  At least they have vets though!

Over the weekend we visited a Roots and Shoots club that was not associated with a specific school but is children from a clinic called Dar Dar.  The clinic is for HIV+ children and I don't know too much about it except that they can get treatments there (possibly for free?) and education about their disease.  So we met with them on Sat morning and Jay and I had prepared lessons and games to do with them.  It was scheduled from 9-12 but everything is late here so it started around 1030 with Jay doing his lesson and a snack after so I never did my lesson (which is OK, I didn't really like what I had prepared).  Instead I just helped elaborate on Jay's since we had ours tied in together anyway (we did symbiosis and the life cycle of insects).  The kids there were really cool and there was only a small group that day because it was a holiday.  I liked it better that way though because I got to spend more time getting to know all of them a little bit.  We were out and about a bit for the rest of the weekend.  I tried to go out Saturday night but they start at about 11pm and I was exhausted so I slept the night away instead of dancing it.  I'm sure I'll get to experience the nightlife here in due time though.

Monday I signed up for a set of art lessons with three of my classmates from swahili class.  One of the guys is staying at a hostel that is right next to the Tinga Tinga Cooperative so he had made friends with one of the artists and decided to talk to him about taking an informal class from him.  He mentioned it at lunch on Monday so we kind of invited ourselves to join which probably worked out better for him because the overall price was split 4 ways.  So we started class yesterday and though the guy mostly just outlined the images and we filled them in, we got to do a little bit of the detail work and I think by the end we'll be able to do most if not all of it.  Anyway it's pretty fun and a nice exposure to some new people as well as a chance to try out our swahili.  Today we got to be a little more involved in the artwork, Abbass (the artist) would do a small part to show us and we'd finish it.  We're all doing better but your lines need a little work.  For the most part I'm pretty impressed with myself though!  The only things I've bought so far are earrings, a scarf for my shoulders and a basket for produce but I want to buy everything.  Though everything you can buy here is basically on every street corner it's all very new and exciting for me.

I've had lots of good food, many cold baths and a couple of crazy daladala rides.  The food is the same at basically every tanzanian stop.  Ugali, rice, pilau, ndizi, and beans, meat and some sort of greens.  Prices here are incredibly low but it's all relative, you can't make much money here.  I usually buy lunch for about $2 and my Tinga Tinga class cost me about $20.  There's no hot water in this house and the water flows so slowly the easiest thing for me to do is fill up a bucket and pour small amounts over my head at a time.  It takes a moment to work myself up to it in the morning but it definitely wakes me up and I've gotten pretty efficient at it.  The daladala's will fill up so that people are just about standing on top of each other and it often smells like BO.  Though people are generally nice and helpful, I often get people that stare at me for the entire ride.  Most likely just because I'm a mzungu because I always have my shoulders and knees covered but whatever the reason, they are not shy about it, even when I stare back (for about 10 seconds, that's about all I can maintain).  I'm sure I could go on for another 10 paragraphs but I've probably already given you more than enough to think about so I'll finish up. 

Oh! And I met Jane today.  She flew in this morning (I'm not sure where from) and will be here a few days to visit with her son and grandchildren (who live on the same compound but in a different house), then she will move on to Gombe (where all of her Chimpanzee research has been done.  She's been very friendly so far and I'm excited that we get to spend a little time getting to know her.

The front of Jane's house

Some of the students at Ruvu

Dar Dar meeting

My Tinga Tinga painting so far

Street art with encouraging messages

My room

A Bajaji

Getting settled

Mambo!

  One of the many greetings I learned today when I started my kiswahili class.  Greetings are very important here and you can potentially greet someone for a good 5-10 minutes before you move onto a conversation.  Goodbyes on the other hand are brief and much less awkward than in english.  In general people here are very friendly and helpful, if you make the effort to greet someone you generally have made a friend.  The driving is chaotic, people are on top of each others bumpers, cutting in and out of a row of cars to get ahead and constantly honking.  Haggling is a necessity for anything bought outside of a store which includes some rides.  But it is often cheaper and supports the local population so we're getting into it.   I've had two tanzanian meals so far: Ugali samaki, a flour paste with fish and beans, and of course the expected classic, rice and beans.  They were very good but like most of the meals here the focus was on carbs.

The weekend was fairly relaxed with breakfast on the balcony (pictured below) and excursions in the afternoon.  It sounds like we're spoiled (maybe a little) but everything here is relaxed, if you show up on time for something you're early.  Saturday was a brief tour of the area and transportation system so that we could get groceries and money.   Yesterday was another lazy morning followed by an afternoon on the beach.  We went to Kipepeo beach which is waaaaaaaaaaaay on the other end of the city so it took 2 daladalas (which are like buses), a short walk, a ferry ride and a bajaji (like a small open taxi) to the beach.  Why not go to the beach just behind my house you ask? Well as it turns out this beach is not very safe because its near some gated communities so there are a lot of muggings.  That and since it's a public area, the beach is not very well maintained and is usually covered in trash.  We did walk along it during the day to get a beer at a beach bar, but it was in the opposite direction the risky areas so that's probably all that we'll do there.  There are also closer more expensive beaches but we were in the mood for some adventure and a chance to see more of the city.  I do have a few pictures below of the beach and the city from the ferry but so far I haven't taken many because you usually don't want to look like a tourist and you need permission to take pictures of individuals.

  Today was my first class followed by an introduction to the work that we'll be doing as well as the JGI employees and volunteers in this area.  Even though we won't be working with them for very long we'll all try to stay in touch to plan projects and events and support each other.  As for Bugs, he decided that my suitcase was by far the best new place in the house to sleep.  So of course I did what I do best and diagnosed him with tapeworms from all the eggs he's shedding on my bag :/.  So now I've scared my housemates into thinking we're all going to get them, oh well, off to the vet with him!  He still likes my suitcase best but I covered it with a towel and it keeps him off my bed!

The balcony at Jane's house

Bugs!

Kipepeo (butteryfly) Beach

A view of Dar on the Ferry ride back

Bat coming out at dusk